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Walking routes in Saint Petersburg

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      Tauride Palace, Kikin Chambers and Smolny

      ⏱ 1 h 10 min🚶 2.4 km🍽 1📍 5 stops
      🐢 A little — under 3 km

      Potemkin's palace, the red chambers of 1714, the view from the bell tower of Smolny Cathedral, Quarenghi's propylaea and a Georgian dinner with khinkali (dumplings) a couple of blocks away.

      🍽 Food tour🏛 History and architecture🌳 Parks and nature⏱ An hour or so
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        🏛 Tauride Palace
        Шпалерная ул., 47
        🎟 ticket · tours by reservation only, with a passport
        Potemkin's palace by Starov (1780s): the State Duma met here, and today it houses the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly; inside only on tours by reservation, while the classical façade with its dome is visible from Shpalernaya.
        The dome and portico of Potemkin's palace can be seen from Shpalernaya; going inside is only on a guided tour by appointment.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Tauride Palace
        © VekaSpb · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Tauride Palace
        © Godot13 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The palace is named after the title "Tauride" that Potemkin received in 1787 for annexing Crimea.
        • About 400,000 roubles in gold were spent on its construction and decoration.
        • In spring 1791 Potemkin threw a lavish feast here, hoping to win back Catherine II's favour.
        • In 1797 Paul I gave the palace to the Horse Guards as barracks and had its furnishings carted off to the Mikhailovsky Castle.
        • In 1906–1910 the interiors were remodelled for the State Duma, and on 5 (18) January 1918 the Constituent Assembly met here.
        • Today the palace is the headquarters of the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🏛 Kikin Hall
        Ставропольская ул., 9
        One of the oldest buildings in the city (1714): the chambers of the boyar Kikin, executed in the case of Tsarevich Alexei; under Peter they housed the first library and the Kunstkamera. Now a music school — view from the outside.
        The Red Chambers of 1714 — one of the oldest buildings in the city; look from outside, walk around it.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Kikin Hall
        © Ludvig14 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The layout and dimensions of the chambers match the central part of the Grand Peterhof Palace; the architect is thought to be Andreas Schlüter.
        • In 1719–1727 the Kunstkamera collections and Peter the Great's personal library were kept here.
        • From 1733 the building held an infirmary and the chancellery of the Horse Regiment; Rastrelli put a wooden bell tower over the house church.
        • The chambers were badly damaged in the Siege; in 1952–1956 they were restored to their 1719–1720 appearance to a design by Irina Benois.
        • Today a music lyceum works in the building.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🌅 Smolny Cathedral (bell tower)
        пл. Растрелли, 1
        🎟 partly ticketed · The climb to the bell tower is ticketed
        A viewing platform on the bell tower — 277 steps
        A view of the city from the bell tower
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Smolny Cathedral (bell tower)
        © Никонико962 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Smolny Cathedral (bell tower)
        © A.Savin · CC BY-SA 3.0
        • The cathedral was founded on 30 October 1748: Elizabeth Petrovna wanted to end her days in a convent on the site of the palace of her childhood.
        • Because of the Seven Years' War money ran out, and under Elizabeth Rastrelli's cathedral was left unfinished as a bare shell.
        • The cathedral was completed by Vasily Stasov and consecrated on 20 July 1835.
        • Rastrelli built the cathedral ‘cold’, and Stasov had to struggle to cut flues for stoves in the walls.
        • The cathedral is 93.7 metres high.
        • The giant bell tower Rastrelli had planned was raised only a few metres and then dismantled.
        • From 1990 to 2015 the cathedral served as a classical music concert hall.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🏛 Smolny Institute
        Смольный пр., 1
        Quarenghi's Neoclassicism: the former institute for noble maidens, the headquarters of the 1917 revolution, now the governor's administration; from the square you can see the propylaea and the garden with the Lenin monument, and the museum is by prior reservation.
        Five minutes from the cathedral: the propylaea and the garden in front of Quarenghi's building, from which the 1917 takeover was directed.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Smolny Institute
        © Kora27 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The Smolny Institute is Russia's first educational institution for women, conceived on the model of the Saint-Cyr institute near Paris.
        • Girls were admitted from the age of six for 12 years, and parents signed a pledge not to take their daughter home before the term was up.
        • The pupils' uniform changed colour with age: coffee-brown, dark blue, light blue, and white for the oldest.
        • Quarenghi built the building with its eight-column portico in 1806–1808.
        • On 1 December 1934 Sergei Kirov, head of the Leningrad Communists, was assassinated at Smolny.
        • Since 1996 Smolny has been the official residence of the governor of Petersburg.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🍽 Dobry Gruzin
        Ярославская ул., 4
        ▮▮▮▯▯
        Dinner at the finish: khinkali, Adjarian khachapuri and pkhali; open from 12:00, until 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
        🍴 A Georgian restaurant with live music in the evenings, a couple of blocks from Smolny Cathedral and the Smolny. What to order: khinkali (Georgian dumplings) with lamb, lyulya kebab, khachapuri, salad with crispy aubergines.

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